US Senate mulls bill to sue OPEC after Putin cuts

The Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on Thursday that the legislation that would allow the US to sue OPEC nations is being considered as a possible response to the oil cartel's production cut this week that benefited Russian President Vladimir Putin.

What Saudi Arabia did to help Putin continue to wage his despicable war against Ukraine will be remembered by Americans, Schumer said in a statement. We are looking at all the legislative tools to deal with this appalling and deeply cynical action, including the bill known as NOPEC.

A person familiar with the matter told Bloomberg News there was no plans to bring the measure to the floor, although that could change. The White House, which has left open the possibility of backing the bill, didn't respond Thursday to a request for comment.

The No Oil Producing and Exporting Cartels Act, first introduced two decades ago, would allow the US government to sue members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries for manipulating the energy market, potentially seeking billions of dollars in reparations. Under the legislation, the Justice Department could bring lawsuits against cartel members for antitrust violations, a move analysts have said could spark a selloff of crude prices.

Following the production cut announcement on Wednesday by OPEC members of OPEC along with Russia and other countries, the Biden administration suggested that it might be willing to back the bill, which has broad support among both parties in Congress.

National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan and National Economic Council Director Brian Deese said that the Biden administration will consult with Congress on additional tools and authorities to reduce OPEC's control over energy prices.

A NOPEC bill has been called a nuclear option that could have a wide-ranging impact for not only the energy markets but the defense industry and geopolitics as well. As recently as May, the White House said it had concerns about its potential implications and unintended consequences. The consulting firm ClearView Energy Partners said in a research note on Wednesday that signs of administration intent to use new powers that NOPEC would confer a dramatic intervention could lead OPEC to reconsider and possibly abandon its market balancing role, leading to a dramatic selloff and exhaustion of global spare capacity. On Thursday, there was a bipartisan move to revive the legislation with Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin, Illinois Democrat and Republican Senator Chuck Grassley, who called for consideration of it when Congress returns to the November election.

From unanswered questions about 911, the brutal murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, the export of extremism, to the defamation of peaceful dissidents and conspiring with Vladimir Putin to punish the US with higher oil prices, the Saudi royal family has never been a trustworthy ally of our nation, Durbin said. Many of the hijackers who seized planes on Sept. 11, 2001, were Saudi. Khashoggi was killed in Istanbul at the Saudi consulate in 2018.

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